The process of making sake is really exciting! There are several sake brewing methods: three main ones, kimoto, yamahai and sokujo (or sokujo-moto) and another one, bodaimoto, which is even older but has been rediscovered only recently. Sake taste profile depends to a certain extent on the method used to make it. So if you know what each method means, you can make a better choice of sake.
All the methods differ by the way, the starter is created. In kimoto, the starter is churned for hours with special poles to turn it into a mush. Yamahai was invented after the kimoto and got rid of this churning. While sokujo-moto slashed the production process by two whole weeks and produced clearer and more refined sake. Bodaimoto, is a very ancient sake brewing method invented by Nara monks around the 12-14th century and was superseded by kimoto.
Episode's Content:
Kampai!
Sake mentioned:
Gozenshu 1859 Prototype
Tengu Sake
Sugidama Blog
Tengu Sake: A Look at Bodaimoto Starters
Music used:
Wirklich Wichtig (CB 27) by Checkie Brown https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Checkie_Brown_1005/hey/Wirklich_Wichtig_CB_27
Just Arround the World (Kielokaz ID 362) by KieLoKaz
https://freemusicarchive.org/music/KieLoKaz/Free_Ganymed/Just_Arround_the_World_Kielokaz_ID_362
Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Vocal: Svetlana
The process of making sake is really exciting! There are several sake brewing methods: three main ones, kimoto, yamahai and sokujo (or sokujo-moto) and another one, bodaimoto, which is even older but has been rediscovered only recently. Sake taste profile depends to a certain extent on the method used to make it. So if you know what each method means, you can make a better choice of sake.
All the methods differ by the way, the starter is created. In kimoto, the starter is churned for hours with special poles to turn it into a mush. Yamahai was invented after the kimoto and got rid of this churning. While sokujo-moto slashed the production process by two whole weeks and produced clearer and more refined sake. Bodaimoto, is a very ancient sake brewing method invented by Nara monks around the 12-14th century and was superseded by kimoto.
Episode's Content:
Kampai!
Sake mentioned:
Gozenshu 1859 Prototype
Tengu Sake
Sugidama Blog
Tengu Sake: A Look at Bodaimoto Starters
Music used:
Wirklich Wichtig (CB 27) by Checkie Brown https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Checkie_Brown_1005/hey/Wirklich_Wichtig_CB_27
Just Arround the World (Kielokaz ID 362) by KieLoKaz
https://freemusicarchive.org/music/KieLoKaz/Free_Ganymed/Just_Arround_the_World_Kielokaz_ID_362
Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Vocal: Svetlana
Episode 04: From Kimoto to Sokujo and Back Again
0:20
Greeting
Hey, everyone welcome to the fourth episode of Sugidama Podcast, the podcast about Japanese sake, the drink so intertwined into Japanese culture that you can see it in every aspect of life in Japan. This is the last episode in a mini-series about how to navigate in the vast sake universe. So I wonder if you have tried any new sake or experimented with styles, types or temperatures? It would be so cool to know. Please drop me a line, write a comment or leave a review. I really need feedback from you guys!
So today we are going to cover something really exciting: various sake brewing methods. There are three main ones, kimoto, yamahai and sokujo(or sokujo-moto) and another one, bodaimoto, which is even older but has been rediscovered only recently.
OK, you may say, why do I need to know about these brewing methods. A simple answer is that the sake taste profile depends to a certain extent on the method used to make it. So knowing it will help you make a better choice of sake.
1:46
Kimoto
Nowadays most of sake is made using a sokujo-moto method, but we will start with kimoto because, for centuries, kimoto was a predominant method for brewing sake. It was the method that developed all the techniques used now. But now not many breweries make sake this way. Only 1% of all sake is kimoto and another 9% is yamahai. The rest is sokujo-moto.
You can compare kimoto to hand-made things in the past, which took a long time to make. They were a bit rough but beautiful. Then new technologies were ushered and allowed to make things cheaper, quicker and smoother. We enjoy them, admire them but still sometimes linger for those old slightly rough artisanal stuff. Same with kimoto. Using it takes twice as much more time and effort to make sake compared to the modern method, sokujo-moto, and requires a technique that is extremely difficult to accomplish in a stable, consistent manner. But still, a few breweries make only kimoto sake.
3:06
What is shubo or moto?
But let’s start from the beginning. I’m not going through the basics of sake brewing again but… There are two points we have to understand and I didn’t mention them in the previous episodes. I told you that the rice is polished, steamed, infused with koji and then mixed with water and yeast to start the fermentation process. However, all these steps are done in stages and to start the fermentation process you need a starter.
If you have ever made sourdough bread, and during the lock-down, a lot of people started doing it, you know that you need a starter, pre-fermented dough filled with natural, wild yeast and bacteria. This wild yeast is energetic and hungry and when you mix it with flour and water it starts multiplying very fast breaking carbohydrates into the gas carbon dioxide, which expands the dough forming little bubbles inside. The by-product of this process, alcohol, evaporates during baking.
Same with sake, to start the fermentation, you need a starter, called shubo or moto in Japanese. The reason to make the starter is to increase the amount of yeast, which then will start the main fermentation. It’s like preparing the avantgarde of disciples who will then bring your idea into the masses. Shubo or moto has a very high concentration of yeast in a relatively small amount of rice. The difference with bread making is that you want to keep the alcohol and usually do not care for carbon dioxide.
So what do you do? First, you take the polished rice, wash it and soak it in water for a while. Just want to mention that some brewers believe and probably not without reason, that soaking is a very important step, which determines the quality of the sake. This is the step at which some toji use a stopwatch to make it perfect. When the rice is properly soaked it is steamed, which is another very important step.
The rice is steamed not boiled because you need to achieve the perfect condition for sake making: soft inside and firm outside, which is opposite to the rice cooked for eating. The soft core will make it easier for koji to propagate inside the rice grains. After steaming the rice is cooled down and divided into three parts. The largest part around 80% of all rice will be used in main fermentation. The smaller parts is to make the starter… Are you still with me? It will get easier…
About 6-8% of all steamed rice is used for making the koji. First, it’s spread over a table in a special koji room and sprinkle with koji spores. Again, the process of making koji is very important. Now a bit of clarification. The word koji is used interchangeably for a few slightly different things. So first, we have koji pores, basically koji mould itself. It’s also called koji-kin in Japanese but sometimes are referred as just koji. Secondly, we have rice koji, which is also often called koji, which is basically rice with koji mould growing on and in it.
All these stages are similar in all three main sake brewing methods. But after that, it starts to differentiate. Basically, the difference between brewing methods in how the starter is made is because the starter gives the sake its character. But let’s leave it here for a second.
7:22
Acidic environment
Let’s imagine this tank of moromi, sake fermenting mash, where koji and yeast are working hard to make alcohol. This starchy mash is a very attractive environment for all kinds of microorganisms. They all feed on carbohydrates and find it delicious. So how can you keep these pesky bacteria, fungi and so on out of your moromi?
Eh, there’s a trick. There’s something all of them don’t like but sake yeast does. Acidity! Yes, all these unwanted microorganisms don’t like an acidic environment. They can’t survive. But sake yeast flourishes there. So now we know that to make sake, you need a starter and acidic environment.
8:12
Kimoto-jikomi
Now let’s move to this exciting starter stage! From around 1600 and until the beginning of the 20th century, all sake were kimoto. So how kimoto-shubo was made? The process is called kimoto-jikomi and at the core of this method lies a technique called yamaoroshi. So as I have just said, a small amount of steamed rice is infused with koji pores in a special koji room and left for 2 days.
Actually, it’s not left to itself. Brewery workers are constantly checking temperature (it should be around 35 degrees), spreading the rice to make sure that koji is growing evenly and the rice is not getting too hot and so on. After 2 days, the koji rice is moved to a cooler place. Then the koji rice is mixed with water and the remaining 12-14% of the rice is left for the starter.
And now comes yamaoroshi, when brewery workers take oar-like poles and start ramming the mixture for many hours to turn it into some kind of a puree. The work was so rough and tedious that the workers made special songs they were singing during the process to keep awake, not to lose count and just make the work less boring. Mind, Spotify wasn’t still available at that time. Not even an FM radio. Let me play you a small bit of the song from Kiku-Masamune brewery’s website, which makes a lot of its sake using the kimoto method.
<audio clip>
Why on Earth they were making the rice into puree? For many centuries, rice could be only polished to 90% maximum. As a result, the grains were quite large and the saccharification process, when koji turns starch into sugar, took too long, which wasn’t good as the starter could be easily spoilt by bad bacteria. When the rice was pureed, the process was quicker. After the starter was ready, it was mixed with the rest of the rice and water to begin the main fermentation.
10:35
Yamahai
However, in 1909, scientists at Japan’s National Institute of Brewing research discovered that all this hassle with ramming the rice with poles was not actually necessary. Just adjust the temperature, get some patience and you will get the same result. I am not sure why sake brewers could not discover this themselves for 800 years. Probably other technological advances made it actually possible with consistent results only at the beginning of the 20th century. Don’t know.
In any case, the new method got rid of this yamaoroshi stage. To eliminate in Japanese is haishi, so to eliminate yamaoroshi will be yamaoroshi haishi, which was shortened into yamahai or yamahai jikomi, the second method very close to kimoto but easier. Oh, jikomi or shikomi just means method.
11:46
Sokujo-moto
But the amazing scientists from the National Institute of Brewing Research didn’t stop there. They kept researching and experimenting and a few years later they came up with even an easier way of making sake starter, sokujo-moto, which means fast brew or quick fermentation.
Remember I was talking about the acidic environment, which is great for the yeast but bad for other unwanted microorganisms. When you make a starter using the kimoto or yamahai method, lactic acid bacteria, which live in the air, fall into the tank with the starter and begin to proliferate in the nice starchy environment adding a lot of lactic acid in the process. This lactic acid makes the life of the yeast much easier and nice keeping away all other uninvited guests.
Of course, for centuries, nobody knew about it. What bacteria? However, the smart scientists from the National Institute of Brewing Research discovered this and thought: “Why should we wait for this lactic acid bacteria to come to the starter is we could just add some specially produced lactic acid.” And they were right. After this method was introduced, the brewing process got shortened by 2 weeks and became easier. Nowadays, it has become a default brewing method, so you won’t see the words sokujo-moto on the bottle.
Another thing to keep in mind. Kimoto and yamahai methods do not imply that wild yeast is used. As in most cases, the specially selected yeast is added to the starter after the environment is good for that. There is a technique called spontaneous fermentation when the brewer invites the yeast which is floating around into the starter. And in this case, you can only do it if making kimoto or yamahai sake as it takes time for the yeast to descend and start working. We will talk about it in an episode dedicated to microorganisms.
13:59
Bodaimoto
So far so good? Let now talk about bodaimoto, the oldest sake brewing method discovered by monks at Shoryaku-ji temple on mount Bodai south of Nara. There is an opinion that it was the first proper sake brewed in Japan. The sake was called Bodaisen and had the reputation of the highest quality and grade in Mediaeval Japan.
Let’s first talk about the method itself. Ironically, bodaimoto could be considered as a prototype for the modern sokujo-moto. It just took about seven hundred years to move to the final product. The main advance in the sokujo-moto method was the addition of lactic acid instead of waiting for it’s developed naturally as in the kimoto method. Bodaimoto takes a similar approach. It was the first time, a starter was separated from the main fermentation. Before that sake was made like doburoku. Basically, it was doburoku. Again, you can call this point a birth of modern sake.
So now we have learnt about three points in the sake brewing history, which could be considered as births of modern sake: 7th or 8th century, when koji was first used to make sake, 13th or 14th century when the starter was separated from the main fermentation and 17th century when clear sake was first produced (according to good people of Itami as we learnt in the previous episode). So take your pick.
Back to bodaimoto. In this method, sake brewing starts with putting together a bit or steamed rice (around 10%) and the rest of the raw polished rice in water. Before mixing, the steamed rice is left to cool down in the air. During this moment, natural lactic acid bacteria, which live in the air, descend on the rice.
I am not going into all the technicalities of the process. If you are interested, there is a very good lecture by Oliver from Tengu Sake in their website, where he goes quite deep into the actual process and what happens on the chemical level. I will put the link in the notes.
What is important here is that after 3 days this step produces water rich in lactic acid. This water is called soyashimizu and is used to make the starter. Soyashimizu is filtered and put aside. The soaked rice is steamed and then cooled down. Then it mixed with the lactic acid water and koji to make the starter. As the environment is already acidic, only sake yeast, which lives in the air, the brewery’s wall end so on will survives. It will drop into the mixture and start to propagate creating the starter. So this is bodaimoto in a nutshell.
17:03
Rediscovery of Bodaimoto
Bodaimoto was superseded by kimoto during the Edo period and went out was use by the beginning of the 20th century or even earlier. However, the method was rediscovered by Tsuji Brewery (which makes Gozenshu sake) in Okayama in 1994. The story goes as the president of the brewery received an old book of woodblock prints and noticed a recipe of bodaimoto there. He asked his master brewer, call toji, remember, to try to make sake using this method. And in 1996 the brewery released its first bodaimoto sake.
However, there is an interesting point about bodaimoto. This method is not legally defined like kimoto or yamahai (as I understand there is a legal requirement to follow the process in order to call sake kimoto). With bodaimoto it’s different. When the method was rediscovered, one of Gozenshu distributors contacted the Shoryaku-ji temple out of respect and let them know about the revival of bodaimoto.
The temple decided that it would be a good idea to start making bodaimoto in the place it was originated from hundreds of years ago. So now the temple makes bodaimoto starter and distributes it among the breweries, which would like to make bodaimoto. The sake they make is called bodaimoto. However, if a brewery makes its own starter, the convention is that the sake is called mizumoto.
The only exception as I understand is Gozenshu as they continue to call its sake bodaimoto as a recognition of their role in the method revival. Also, the bodaimoto method used for Gozenshu sake is slightly modified. Again, I am not going to go deep into technicalities here. The main difference between Gozenshu and the original method is that Gozenshu adjusted the brewing process in order to use any yeast they want, while the original method relies on wild yeast.
The main reason why breweries prefer to use so-called association sake yeast is to have more control and to achieve consistent results. Wild yeast brings too much unpredictability. There are still toji like Philip Harper from Tamagawa brewery, which uses spontaneous fermentation but again not for all sake they make.
19:42
How do different methods taste
So now let’s do a practical part, taste profiles based on a brewing method. A bit of a disclaimer. As everything is in sake and honestly pretty much in Japan, any rule has a lot of exceptions. There are certain characteristics in terms of flavour, taste, acidity of each of the brewing methods.
However, a taste profile of any sake also depends on a huge number of other factors, mostly ingredients and brewing techniques. It means that sometimes, and this sometimes could be more often than you think, you can taste sake, look at the label and get surprised because it might taste very different from what you would expect. Still, there are common taste profiles for kimoto, yamahai and bodaimoto, on which we will focus.
So why sake made say with the kimoto method will usually taste different from a sake made with sokujo-moto? The main reason is the longer time for preparing the starter. In the kimoto method, it takes two weeks before yeast is added to develop a lactic acid environment. During that time a lot of microorganisms get into the starter and die there. They bring this wildness and gaminess to the sake. In general, kimoto and especially yamahai are richer, sweeter, and more acidic. They have deeper and more umami-laden taste and wilder flavours.
But again, some kimoto and yamahai, especially in ginjo style, are barely different from sake made with the sokujo method. Apparently, some brewers even avoid putting the word yamahai on the label because they don’t want their consumers to think that the sake is richer than it actually is. Still, in my experience, you usually notice the difference.
Bodaimoto or mizumoto taste and flavour wise is also in the same category as kimoto and yamahai. However, it tends to be a bit more acidic due to soyashimizu, water high in lactic acid and sweeter at the same time.
22:04
Rundown
So a quick rundown of the things we learnt in this episode. There are three main sake brewing methods: kimoto, yamahai and sokujo-moto, plus bodaimoto, an ancient method revived in the 1990s. All the methods differ by the way, the starter is created. In kimoto, the starter is churned for hours with special poles to turn it into a mush. Yamahai was invented after the kimoto and got rid of this churning.
But very quickly, the sake scientists came up with a modern sake brewing method, sokujo-moto, which slashed the production process by two whole weeks and produced clearer and more refined sake. Now sokujo-moto accounts for 90% of all sake made. Bodaimoto, is a very ancient sake brewing method invented by Nara monks around the 12-14th century and was superseded by kimoto.
Kimoto, yamahai and bodaimoto sake generally have richer and deeper taste full of nuances. It’s usually more acidic and sweeter compared to sake made by the sokujo-moto method. But there are a lot of exceptions.
23:23
Sake of the episode
Now it’s time for the sake of the episode. And today we’ll talk about bodaimoto, but not just bodaimoto but a very special one: Gozenshu 1859 Prototype Junmai Muroka Nama Genshu Nakadori Bodaimoto. It’s not just a bodaimoto but has almost all techniques from the sake brewing textbook and is made from very special rice.
As I have mentioned before, Gozenshu is a sake brand of Tsuji Honten, the brewery responsible for the bodaimoto revival. Tsuji Honten founded in 1804 is located in Okayama prefecture, which lies between two famous sake regions, Hyogo and Hiroshima. The brewery is famous for a number of reasons. I have mentioned the rediscovery of Bodaimoto.
Another notable feature of Tsuji Honten is the use of Omachi rice, the oldest pure variety of rice discovered in the village with the same name in 1859 in the very Okayama Prefecture. The last but not in any way the least cool thing about Tsuji Honten is its toji, Maiko Tsuji, one of a very few female sake master brewers in Japan. Her brother, Soichiro Tsuji is the kuramoto (president of the brewery).
The story of Gozenshu brand name is quite interesting too. Tsuji Honten originally started as a sake brewery for the local lord. The lord lived in his castle on the mountain behind the brewery and had the sake from the brewery with his meals. I think there is a special name for anything in Japan and in this case, a lord’s meal is called “gozen”. In the first episode I mentioned that the second reading for a character for sake is “shu”, so put them together and you’ve got Gozenshu, “a sake for the lord”, so to speak.
Now let’s talk about the sake itself. So Gozenshu is the brand name. 1859 refers to the year when Omachi rice was discovered. The sake is the first in the 1859 line, which is focused on bringing the superb quality of Omach rice, thus Prototype. I think you can now decipher most of the rest of the names: muroka (unfiltered), nama (unpasteurised) and genshu (undiluted). The last bit, nakadori is quite interesting. Remember, in the previous episode we were talking about Arabashiri sake, which means the first run. Nakadori means the mid-run, and it’s the most prized sake considered as the finest sake of the batch.
So how does Gozenshu 1859 Prototype taste? It’s is a bold and complex sake with a deep and dramatic taste. While it’s not overly aromatic, you will still notice melon and apricot scents at the beginning. The aroma will unfold slowly as the sake is warming up adding rice, cheese and even a bit of stone and wood notes. Gozenshu 1859 Prototype’s taste is rich and full of wild notes and overtones. It has higher acidity which offset the sweetness of the sake. Gozenshu 1859 Prototype is a quite potent sake rich in umami. So it will be a perfect companion for rich and spicy food like Chilli con Carne, tacos, Thai curry or rich and creamy food like risotto. I tried it with cheese and it tasted amazing and then I drank it with fried teriyaki salmon and it was superb!
27:17
Ending
So that’s it for today. I’ll be back with more episodes. In the meantime, go and try sake. You might not find Gozenshu 1859 Prototype as I have checked and Tengu Sake is out of stock. But I saw on one of my friend’s Instagram from Singapore that they have now Gozenshu 1859 with the word Prototype. Just keep checking the Tengu Sake website, it will eventually appear there. While you are waiting, try other bodaimoto sake. Tengu has a couple of them. Or find kimoto or yamahai and compare them to any sokujo-moto sake. Should be fun.
Go to sogidama.co.uk/tasing-notes and find something which looks attractive to you. Or look in my posts about the 5 best seasonal sake. Please, send me an email or leave a comment about your experience.
If you like the episode and want more, hit the SUBSCRIBE button, please, please, please leave a review otherwise other people won’t find the podcast. We are all fighting against algorithms now, so the more reviews I have, the more people will have Sugidama Podcast in their suggestions from the podcast platforms. And of course please share this podcast with your friends.
Thanks a lot for listening!
Kampai!
Steamed rice 10% cooled in the air, lactic acid bacteria settle on the rice.
Raw rice 90%
Amylolitic lactic acid
Hetrolactic fermentation
Raw rice contains saccharification enzymes
Soyashimizu water with lactic acid
Shirakuji monks
Mizumoto (moto is created not in Shirakuji temple)
1994 – rediscovery of the bodaimoto technique
Gozenshu brewery, book of woodblock prints
1996 – first batch was created
Water + Koji
https://www.tengusake.com/blog/tag/bodaimoto/
takacho regal hawk bodaimoto muroka genshu Yucho Brewery
Shoryaku-ji Temple on Mt. Bodai in Nara.
some time in or before the 14th century